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COSATU statement on Zimbabwe fact-finding mission
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)
October 28, 2004

http://www.cosatu.org.za/press/2004/[Press]COSATU's_Zimbabwe_mission--14192.html

The Congress of South African Trade Unions congratulates its members in the fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe for their heroism and commitment. Their courage in the face of harassment, threats and assault from the Zimbabwe security forces was in the finest traditions of the trade union movement. We thank them all for their refusal to be intimidated and to stick to their mission in the face of brutal repression. And we thank all those, in South Africa and around the world, who have supported the mission and shown their solidarity.

We totally condemn the actions of the Zimbabwe government, which revealed its utter contempt not only for the principles of respect for human rights and civil liberties, but for the rule of law, when it brushed aside an order of the Harare High Court interdicting them from deporting the members of the COSATU mission.

COSATU believes that despite its early forced departure, the mission achieved its goal. Its aim was to talk to as many people as possible from the widest spectrum and establish whether allegations of attacks on human rights and trade union freedom were true and whether there were conditions for free and fair elections next year. The police invasion of the offices of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the arrest of the COSATU mission and their ill-treatment at the hands of the police all proved beyond doubt that the government has no respect for human rights and the freedom of trade unions to function freely within the law.

COSATU notes the statement attributed to SA Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Ronnie Mamoepa, that "Zimbabwe is an independent, sovereign state that has an inalienable right to determine and to apply its immigration legislation as it may deem appropriate and in its own interest." Zimbabwe, however, is a signatory to international conventions that guarantee basic human rights, including freedom of movement, assembly and speech. The government’s conduct this week has attacked all these rights.

No democratic government has the right to deny entry and free movement to visitors who, like the COSATU mission, do not contravene any immigration laws and who obey the laws of the land. COSATU’s mission was entirely lawful, peaceful and disciplined. As South African citizens they did not require a visa. There were no grounds for denying it entry and COSATU was absolutely right to insist that they did not require government permission to conduct the mission and to refuse to accept conditions as to whom they could and could not meet.

We accept that the ANC government shares with COSATU the common goal of restoring democracy in Zimbabwe, but that it is pursuing a different route from COSATU towards achieving that goal. Ronnie Mamoepa also said, on Radio 702, that the solution to the problems of Zimbabwe had to come about through amicable discussion with the parties involved - precisely what the COSATU mission was trying to do.

COSATU will not stop campaigning publicly in support of our comrades in the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and in defence of their right to organize freely without any interference from government. COSATU rejects with contempt the attack by the Pan-Africanist Congress, who have congratulated the government of Zimbabwe for its expulsion of the mission. Nothing could demonstrate more starkly why the PAC has been rejected time and again by the South African voters than this statement in support of dictatorial actions. The PAC is accusing millions of South African workers of becoming ’agents of reactionary forces’, a ludicrous charge that will be greeted only with derision by workers and all South Africans.

COSATU will continue to campaign for the reinstatement of this fact-finding mission and will intensify its campaign of solidarity with the Zimbabwe trade union movement, whose problems were brought home to so vividly in the one meeting with them that the mission was able to attend. We will be ready, if called upon by the ZCTU to take solidarity action support of their struggle for the right to meet, demonstrate and organize, free of any interference from the state, in line with the International Labour Organisation and UN conventions. And we shall also campaign for the restoration of democracy and for free and fair elections.

Patrick Craven
Acting COSATU Spokesperson
patrick@cosatu.org.za
082-821-7456 339-4911

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